There was a point in recent history where Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, a former human rights lawyer, and detained Senator Leila de Lima, also a lawyer and former human rights commissioner, were on the same side of the fence as the Philippines’ top human rights defenders.
But they aren’t today.
In a press conference this afternoon, Roque lashed out at the detained senator after a reporter asked him to respond to de Lima’s statement saying he “bartered his reputation and dignity for political gain.”
To this, Roque told De Lima: “As I said, happy anniversary of your first year in detention. May you spend the rest of your life in jail! Goodbye.”
Visibly irked by the comment, Roque hurriedly walked out of the press conference stage immediately after his statement.
De Lima was arrested and detained on drug charges in February last year for allegedly allowing the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City to proliferate while she served as the secretary of justice during the Aquino administration.
Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia Phelim Kine this month called for de Lima’s release, saying her arrest was an attempt to vilify her “for her strident and principled opposition to his murderous drug war.”
“Instead, her prosecution has only raised her global stature and brought greater attention to Duterte’s demolition of the rule of law and respect for human rights,” he said.
On Saturday, Roque said of de Lima: “She is the mother of all drug lords by allowing the illegal drug trade to proliferate inside the National Bilibid Prison when she was the Department of Justice secretary.”
One of De Lima’s first orders of business as senator was to lead an inquiry into the Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group based in Davao, who allegedly committed thousands of killings of convicted criminals and drug suspects under the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte himself.
This is what De Lima’s supporters believe triggered the cases against her and her subsequent arrest.
Ironically, the law firm Roque founded when he was a practicing human rights lawyer, CenterLaw, is continuing to fight the drug war administration and its drug policy. A policy Roque has to defend and explain to the public.
During his time at CenterLaw, Roque represented some of the families of the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre, one of the most gruesome politically motivated mass murders in Philippine history. Fifty-eight people, including 32 journalists were killed in the massacre.
In 2006, Roque represented 43 journalists in a civil suit against former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who Roque said was abusing libel laws and suing almost every journalist who wrote articles linking him to any alleged wrongdoing.
It’s understandable why De Lima’s comments would provoke that kind of reaction from Roque, who left his law firm in 2016 when he was elected to the House of Representatives.
Once an advocate of human rights and press freedom, Roque now defends an administration that constantly boasts about not caring about human rights and bans reporters they find adversarial from Palace grounds.
Check out the video clip here:
